Chelsea got the Scolari era off to a flyer with a convincing 4-0 win in China although the victory may have come at a cost as new signing Bosingwa suffers a muscle injury early on.

Guangzhou Pharmaceutical 0 Chelsea 4

Scolari used his entire squad over the course of the game but stared with a strong first eleven. Adopting a narrow 4-4-2 formation, the new Blues boss played with a midfield of Mikel, Essien, Deco and Lampard. Deco was placed out on the right, with Essien playing left of Mikel and Lampard in the centre.

Kalou partnered Anelka up front while Bosingwa made his debut at right-back. He and Ashley Cole were given licence to bomb forward to support Chelsea’s narrow midfield. Joe Cole and Shevchenko sat the game out with minor injuries.

It was Kalou who got the scoring started, converting a Lampard pass on 20 minutes. Chelsea shifted to a 4-3-3 in the second half as Scolari rang the changes. Lampard lobbed a delightful second goal on 50 minutes before 19-year-old Argentine striker Franco Di Santo fired a third. Wright-Phillips notched a fourth from a Bridge cross with just minutes remaining.

Bosingwa sustained a muscle injury after just 19 minutes though and was duly replaced by Ferreira. There’s no official news from Chelsea on the extent of the injury just yet but this will be a concern to Scolari and many fantasy managers with Bosignwa highly fancied going into the new season. We’re expecting more news on the knock in the next 24 hours.

Chelsea take on Chengdu Blades in their next encounter in China.

Chelsea vs Guangzhou Pharmaceutical:
First-half: Cech; Bosingwa (Ferreira 19), Carvalho, Terry, A Cole; Mikel; Essien, Deco; Lampard; Kalou, Anelka.

Second-half: Cudicini, Ferreira, Alex, Carvalho, Bridge; Lampard, Mikel, Deco (Ivanovic 62); Kalou (Wright-Phillips 57), Di Santo, Malouda.